Caio for now!

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We entered Chile from Peru and spent a couple of weeks travelling down the coast to Santiago for our flight. To be honest, we were really dissapointed with most things in the north of Chile. We struggled to find anything that we wanted to see or do. I think we had been totally spoilt before hand to be honest. We still managed to spend our budget though, despite not doing a lot. Chile is not as cheap as the rest of the continent by any stretch of the imagination. We ended up getting to Santiago with 5 days until our flight but we liked it there and had a really good time. It was Lynnys birthday weekend so we went out a lot and celebrated.

The photos sum up our time in Chile perfectly well.

So we had to leave South America. A continent we have found to be truly amazing. So much to see and such alien culture to us. It was a fantastic place to start our travels and we are told, brave of us to come straight here. We have heard plenty of horror stories along the way but have found it to be welcoming and accomodating. The trouble is, it is so massive! We only scratched the surface and didnt get to venture to the Amazon and the Northern countries of the continent. To do all of that too, you would need at least a year I would say.

Some interesting pointers:
- To have blonde hair attracts so much attention! I had 'Rubio' (blonde) shouted out to me in the street at times. Im guessing asia will be similar. My new nickname is Rubio-boy ;-)
- In Chile, the younger generations are heavily into their Gothic look. Black is the colour to wear. Strangely though, they all go out in their goth uniforms and dance to british pop music! Blondie, Robbie etc They love it! It is a very strange sight indeed. I wonder what the rock and metal music community dress like? pokerdot dresses and pastel coloured t-shirts??
- The whole continent is being taken over by stray dogs! I think they are pretty much in charge over there.
- The horn on a car is not for danger alert etc. Just drive around honking it every 30 seconds for fun and you will fit right in.
- We believe that cinemas, during the day on a weekday are used as a meeting point for gay men. In fact we are sure of this. Thinking about it .... they probably are at home too, we dont know, we used to work for a living ;-)

So its off to New Zealand.

Gray + Lynny xx

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Photos

The port at Arica
The most interesting thing about Arica to be honest.

A local Pelican
There are loads of them hanging in the port waiting for the fish scraps.

Feeding time
A fishing boat causes chaos by throwing all their scraps out.

Sealions up close
They get in on the action as well.

Sammy
giving us the wink and a gun

Surfing
The waves were good for surfing in Arica. The surfers had surf very close to rocks though! Not for beginners I think.

Observatory
The skys in Northern Chile are famous for the clarity and are home to many observatories. We visited one near La Serena to do some star gazing. It was really interesting.

The moon
through a telescope.

Valparaiso
The City has very steep banks so it uses these old car lifts.

Santiago
Dwarfed by the nearby Andes

This ones for Carolyns Dad!
A bus in Santiago, with an interesting haircut! Which a local appears to be styling himself on!

Comments

[Mouse]

Oooooooh! Pretty!
When we get our next mouse house can we paint it pretty colours pleeease? :-) XX